After winning Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats with help of BSP, Akhilesh Yadav has now succeeded in winning over Rashtriya Lok Dal to join the alliance for the forthcoming by-election in Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur assembly seats. Both seats fall in western UP, which is known as the jatland where RLD plays an important role.

Jayant Chaudhary, RLD vice president and son of Ajit Singh, visited Lucknow and held three hours meeting with Akhilesh Yadav and both the leaders agreed to join hands to take on BJP. According to RLD sources, there was broad understanding on unitedly fighting the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and seat sharing. The details of talks between Akhilesh and Jayant Chaudhary have also been conveyed to BSP national president Mayawati.

The Muzaffarnagar communal riots succeeded in breaking the age old bonhomie between Jats and Muslims, which helped BJP sweep the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in UP. The latest development of RLD joining hands with Samajwadi Party and BSP will help in changing the social dynamics and vote consolidation in favour of the alliance.

Akhilesh has decided field Naim-ul- Hasan as party candidate in the Noorpur assembly seat in Bijnor while his Samajwadi Party will support RLD Candidate Tabassum Hasan for Kairana Lok Sabha seat. Tabassum Hasan was the BSP MP from Kairana from 2009 to 2014 before joining Samajwadi Party.

As per the understanding between Akhilesh and Jayant, Tabassum took primary membership of RLD only last Sunday. Interestingly in Kairana, the two powerful Gujar families of Hukum Singh and Munnawar Hasan dominate the election scenario for the past few years.

BJP has fielded Hukum Singh's daughter Mriganka to take on Tabassum. It has also fielded the widow of sitting party MLA Lokendra Singh in Noorpur to take the advantage of sympathy factor.

If SP-BSP-RLD succeeds in winning both the seats, then it could change the dynamics of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and adversely affect BJP. The Yogi government has withdrawn cases against the powerful leaders of party in western UP, charged for inciting communal riots in Muzaffarnagar. (IPA Service)